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Ford Motor Co. is putting a $300,000, 800-hp halo atop its Mustang lineup that's taking aim at European supercars both on the track and in the streets.

The 2025 Mustang GTD, revealed Thursday evening, is billed as the most powerful street-legal pony car ever and is based on the Mustang GT3 race car that will return to Le Mans next year. It includes carbon-fiber body panels, magnesium wheels, a rear-mounted eight-speed transaxle, a semi-active suspension and a special 5.2-liter V-8 engine.

"It's the pinnacle of the breed and the very best of both street and racing," said Jim Baumbick, Ford's vice president of product development operations and quality.

Ford said it will begin producing the GTD in partnership with Multimatic in late 2024 or early 2025 in "limited" quantities. The vehicle will be assembled at the Mustang plant in Flat Rock, Mich., before being finished by Multimatic in Markham, Ontario.

Executives say the idea for the vehicle came …

Bergstrom Automotive, a large privately held dealership group in Wisconsin, has agreed to buy five dealerships representing domestic, import and luxury brands in the state.

The group on Tuesday said it reached an agreement to acquire Broadway Automotive, which has four dealerships in Green Bay and one in Manitowoc, south of Green Bay.

Broadway Automotive is owned by brothers Michael Cuene and David Cuene. The group has Chevrolet, Volkswagen, Ford and Hyundai-Genesis dealerships in Green Bay and a Chevrolet-GMC-Cadillac dealership in Manitowoc, which it purchased in 2020.

A Broadway Automotive spokesperson, in an email, said the transaction has not closed. Bergstrom Automotive Executive Chairman John Bergstrom told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that he thinks the acquisition will be finished by the end of August.

Bergstrom Automotive last made an acquisition in 2020, when it bought Cliff Wall Automotive in Green Bay, then consisting of a Mazda-Suba…

Stellantis is investing more than $100 million in a California geothermal lithium project that aims to create a more environmentally friendly electric-vehicle supply chain.

The investment will help make the automaker's EVs eligible for consumer incentives under the federal Inflation Reduction Act.

The Hell's Kitchen project being undertaken near the heavily polluted Salton Sea by Controlled Thermal Resources Holdings Inc. is the world's largest geothermal lithium sourcing effort. It's expected to produce up to 300,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent each year.

The companies expanded the initial supply agreement, which now calls for CTR to supply up to 65,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate each year, nearly triple the original agreement, for a decade.

Hell's Kitchen "will recover lithium from geothermal brines using renewable energy and steam to produce truly 'green' battery-grad…

DriveSure did a study this year to find out what factors influenced dealership customers to have vehicle repairs and maintenance performed there and what led others to defect to an independent repair facility. Here are some study highlights:

As Nissan pulls out of the Detroit-dominated full-size pickup segment next year, the Japanese automaker will refocus its attention and resources into a more competitive arena — midsize pickups.

But according to a supplier memo obtained by Automotive News, production of the current-generation midsize Frontier at Nissan's factory in Canton, Miss., has been extended two years beyond its previously expected redesign, now carrying into the 2029 model year.

The previous Frontier went 17 years before undergoing its first major redesign in 2021.

In the memo, Nissan didn't offer suppliers a reason for the life cycle extension, but one supplier briefed on the matter, who asked not to be identified, told Automotive News that the previously planned changeover would have come just as the Canton factory is gearing up to build new Nissan and Infiniti electric vehicles.

Nissan doesn't want "a major model launch during the time that the…

A federal judge in Louisiana has dismissed an Americans with Disabilities Act claim by a service customer with a prosthetic leg who allegedly slipped on an oily patch at a dealership. However, the judge allowed her to pursue traditional premises liability and negligence claims in state court.

The suit named dealership owner Gregg Orr, who is described in court filings as a corporate officer and director, as the only defendant. His dealership, Orr Cadillac of Shreveport, was not named in the suit.

According to the decision, Whitney Brock brought her mother's car to the store for servicing in January 2022. She said she slipped and fell outside the service garage where it was parked, falling onto her back and hitting her head on the concrete. The suit sought $80,000 for mental anguish, emotional distress, medical expenses and other damages.

Brock wears a prosthesis because her leg was amputated below the knee, according to the decision…

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems could prevent nearly 250,000 U.S. road deaths over the next 30 years, according to a study funded by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

Research performed by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center found that the technology, which includes features such as automatic emergency braking and blind spot alerts, also would prevent approximately 37 million crashes and 14 million injuries from 2021 to 2050.

That would represent 16 percent of crashes and injuries and 22 percent of deaths that would occur on U.S. roads without the technologies. AAA said.

The research suggests "that ADAS have the potential to transform road safety," David Yang, the AAA Foundation executive director, said in a statement.

The AAA research tracks with insurance industry findings.

Automatic emergency braking reduces front-to-rear crashes with injuries by 56 percent compared wit…

The glamour may be in selling vehicles, but fixed operations is the steady workhorse that creates customers for life. After all, the retention of customers' service business leads to increased fixed operations profits as well as higher probability of future vehicle purchases.

Retaining service business is not a new topic. However, loyalty programs, free oil changes and cold drinks in the waiting area aren't enough anymore. Strong dealers are promoting new strategies such as "unreasonable hospitality" and interactions that keep customers connected to their service centers.

The fact is that customer service matters just as much, if not more, than your product. Your service center can deliver exceptional customer service. If you aren't sure where to begin, start with the following ideas.

First, what is "unreasonable hospitality"?

The phrase was coined by Will Guidara, former owner and operator of Eleven Madison Park. Renowned for world-class food, t…

Carmen Hinton is service manager for CMA's Valley Subaru in Staunton, Va. She also is a 2023 Automotive News 40 Under 40 honoree.

First car: Nissan Sentra

First concert you attended: 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg

Name a pet peeve: Not taking initiative

Most thrilling/adventurous thing you've done: Rope obstacle course (I will not be doing that again!)

Your personal hero (and why): My mother. She is the most understanding and committed person that I know.

First job: Telemarketing call center

Something on your bucket list: Visit Tahiti

One thing you learned on the job you never forgot: You are what you make it.

If you could pick up a new skill, what would it be? Mentoring/coaching

3 people you'd invite to dinner, living or dead: My grandmother, my mother-in-law (both deceased) and Rihanna

Do you collect anything? Candles

First album/CD…

The Chinese market for used light vehicles has maintained growth for six straight months, with July sales increasing 8.6 percent year on year to roughly 1.26 million according to the tally of the China Automobile Dealers Association. 

The trade group attributes the sustained market expansion to measures the central Chinese government has taken to remove restrictions on used-vehicle transactions.

While pushing provincial governments in recent years to allow local residents to purchase used vehicles from other provinces, the central government also enacted a policy in June to simplify registration of used vehicles bought for private use. 

Under the new policy, car shoppers can use identity cards instead of residence registry records as previously required to register their newly bought used vehicles. 

In July, sales of used crossovers and SUVs advanced 11 percent to some 205,600, while deliveries of secondhand sedans rose 8.8 percent …

BYD Co., China’s largest electrified-vehicle maker, has signed a deal with Stingray, a Canadian music, media and technology company, to bring Karaoke into its vehicles. 

Stingray’s Karaoke product will be embedded as an app in the infotainment system of its popular models to be sold in a dozen countries later this year, BYD said last week, without identifying the countries.

As the infotainment system will support dozens of languages and feature an intuitive user interface, vehicle owners can access and browse Stingray’s song library by title, artist, lyrics or genre. 

To ensure driving safety, the system will automatically deactivate the karaoke lyrics scrolling function on the center console when the vehicle is in driving mode, BYD said. 

The two companies have also developed a separate app allowing passengers to use mobile devices to view lyrics and control song selection when the audio plays through the vehicle sound system, it a…

The head of the UAW on Tuesday asked members to grant him the ability to call a strike, arguing contract talks with the Detroit 3 automakers are moving "too slow."

Obtaining rank-and-file authorization for a strike is a routine and expected part of a labor contract bargaining process.

The UAW has been negotiating with General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler parent Stellantis for 30 days and the parties have yet to discuss economic terms, said Shawn Fain, the UAW president, in a Facebook Live webcast.

To move forward, Fain argued it was “critically important” that union locals at the three carmakers vote to authorize the strike. Their backing wouldn’t necessarily lead to a work stoppage, but could give the union leverage as it negotiates for higher pay and better benefits.

“Progress is slow. It’s too slow,” Fain said. “The Big Three need to get serious and get down to business.”

Earlier this year, Fain gave each carmaker a list of dema…